Taurus 66 stainless snubby

olivehead1 · Mar 17, 2020

Picked this up and gave it a good cleaning last night. When I first saw it at a glance I thought it was a S&W 66, but realized that the details (and price) didn't fit. Seems these are less common in the wild than their 4" and 6" counterparts, and I thought it was neat. I think it probably dates to the late '80s to late '90s but need to look into that further. The fit and finish are pretty close to the Smiths I've seen from that period.

eric.ripper.52 · Mar 17, 2020

Nice looking pistola!

Sent from my SM-J320W8 using Tapatalk

stu1ritter · Mar 17, 2020

THAT really takes a second look it is so Smith like.

Stu

Echo40 · Mar 17, 2020

It's a shame that Taurus has implemented so many cost-saving-measures over the past decade or so, as you could never mistake a modern Taurus 66 for a S&W Model 66 with the bead-blasted finish, injection-molded cylinder latch, and full-length ejector rod housing, not to mention "Made in Brazil - Forjas Taurus" laser-etched in black on the side.

stansdds · Mar 17, 2020

Some people poo-poo Taurus firearms, but those made in the 1980's-90's were pretty good handguns. I'm sure a lot of the newer ones are also reliable, but the laser engraved billboard markings are an eyesore in my opinion.

LCC · Mar 17, 2020

a fan of older stainless Taurus's...this 3" Taurus from the late 70's one of my fave's.

Trooper224 · Mar 17, 2020

stansdds said:
Some people poo-poo Taurus firearms, but those made in the 1980's-90's were pretty good handguns. I'm sure a lot of the newer ones are also reliable, but the laser engraved billboard markings are an eyesore in my opinion.

I owned three Taurus handguns in the 80's-90's. Every one was a piece of junk with some critical defect. They were prettier back then, but that was just lipstick on a pig.

olivehead1 · Mar 17, 2020

LCC said:
a fan of older stainless Taurus's...this 3" Taurus from the late 70's one of my fave's.

Those Pachmayr grips on your 3" Taurus: I assume your gun is a round butt like mine, and if so, are those Taurus-specific Pachmayrs or are they S&W K/L grips adapted to fit? I can't find any round butt rubber grips like Pachs or Hogue to fit a round butt medium frame Taurus...

kaaskop49 · Mar 17, 2020

Trooper224 said:
I owned three Taurus handguns in the 80's-90's. Every one was a piece of junk with some critical defect. They were prettier back then, but that was just lipstick on a pig.

^^^what he said. Back in NYC, including during the above period, purchase authorizations for handguns were difficult to come by. No FFL dealer in NYC would carry Taurus handguns for the above reason, no matter how closely they mirrored S&W handguns on the surface.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

olivehead1 · Mar 17, 2020

kaaskop49 said:
^^^what he said. Back in NYC, including during the above period, purchase authorizations for handguns were difficult to come by. No FFL dealer in NYC would carry Taurus handguns for the above reason, no matter how closely they mirrored S&W handguns on the surface.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I admit I picked it up because it looked nice and was cheap, passed all the standard function checks, and I've never seen one of these out in the wild before. I'm a sucker for vintage guns (circa mid-60s to mid-90s), even vintage Tauruses (Tauri?). I'll put a few rounds through it eventually and if the cylinder falls out or the hammer cracks off, I'll report and someone can say "I told you so."

LCC · Mar 17, 2020

olivehead1 said:
Those Pachmayr grips on your 3" Taurus: I assume your gun is a round butt like mine, and if so, are those Taurus-specific Pachmayrs or are they S&W K/L grips adapted to fit? I can't find any round butt rubber grips like Pachs or Hogue to fit a round butt medium frame Taurus...

narrow square butt..Taurus specific Compac Pach's, put them on 30 years ago, apparently now discontinued. Ebay has some, just need to make sure the right screw hole..

Uncle Mike's boots grips for M85 Pachmayr 03396 Compact Compac Grip 85 Taurus Small Frame Revolver BLK Rubber T2 for sale online | eBay

Taurus 85 Rubber Grips | eBay

Echo40 · Mar 17, 2020

olivehead1 said:
I admit I picked it up because it looked nice and was cheap, passed all the standard function checks, and I've never seen one of these out in the wild before. I'm a sucker for vintage guns (circa mid-60s to mid-90s), even vintage Tauruses (Tauri?). I'll put a few rounds through it eventually and if the cylinder falls out or the hammer cracks off, I'll report and someone can say "I told you so."

Don't count on it. For all the folks who come out of the woodwork whenever the brand comes up in discussion just to post about how they're junk, I've had experience with a total of 5 different Taurus brand firearms between my family and myself, and they've all been 100% reliable.

Personally, I have a suspicion that many of the issues folks find with Taurus brand firearms are something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with folks hearing that their gun is unreliable, undesirable junk, so they don't take as good care of them, clean them less often, and when they inevitably malfunction or break due to their neglect, no matter how long it might take for that to happen, they automatically give up on the guns, then share their tales of failure and how they'd never buy one again on the internet. Sure, they could have sent it in for service, taken it to a gunsmith, or attempted to repair it themselves as they surely would have done if it were a Smith & Wesson, but since it has Taurus on it and they've already been convinced by others that it is irreparable junk, it isn't worth the effort.

Collo Rosso · Mar 17, 2020

1992 and walked into a sporting goods store going out of business. Spotted this Taurus for $129 if I remember right and bought it for the wife for a car gun. Has been a great little revolver. It's still tight with perfect timing and a lot of rounds fired over the years. Me, the wife, both kids and many friends used it for CWP class. Only Taurus I've ever owned.

HEADKNOCKER · Mar 18, 2020

Congrats olivehead1
I saw you yesterday at TaurusArmed.Net
Not sure if the M66 Taurus uses M85 grips or not
IIRC 20+ years ago my then Taurus M65 wore a set of Uncle Mike's grips for a K/L frame RB that had a space in the back of the grip that I filled with silicone.. There a set of UMs for Small Frame Taurus on eBay here ---> Uncle-Mikes-Taurus-Small-Frame-Grips-59008

Here's my Taurus Model 85CH made in 1989 bought a few weeks ago for $200

HEADKNOCKER · Mar 18, 2020

olivehead1 I have a set of Uncle Mikes grips for a K/L RB in my stash..
Will get a few pictures of the M85 frame sitting in the K frame grips..
Maybe it could be some help.. Who knows I might already have the grips I'm searching for too..
The Model 85 is the size of a J Frame & The Model 66 is the size of a K Frame..
And for those who didn't know Taurus was once owned by Bangor Punta who also owned S&W at the time & they shared drawings & info throughout the company.. That's why the early Taurus,s look a lot like Smith & Wessons..

olivehead1 · Mar 18, 2020

HEADKNOCKER said:
Not sure if the M66 Taurus uses M85 grips or not IIRC 20+ years ago my then Taurus M65 wore a set of Uncle Mike's grips for a K/L frame RB that had a space in the back of the grip that I filled with silicone.. There a set of UMs for Small Frame Taurus on eBay here --->

Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure the Taurus small frame is equivalent to the Smith J frame, and the Taurus medium frame is K/L size. Surprisingly difficult to find grips for a medium frame round butt Taurus revolver, so I figure not a huge number were made.

LCC · Mar 18, 2020

The owner of the GS that get's my business is a premium gunsmith, and is a fan of all the current Taurus products, especially those coming out of the new Taurus Georgia facility that is manufacturing to ISO 9001 standards.
Just waiting for Taurus to come out with a .32 H&R magnum in a 3" barrel, and will be all over it.
Consider Taurus reputation to be akin to Marlins...good back in the day, took hits during some production change years, still 'tainted' from those years even though their new products are very reliable.

Trooper224 · Mar 18, 2020

Dirty Harry Callahan said:
Don't count on it. For all the folks who come out of the woodwork whenever the brand comes up in discussion just to post about how they're junk, I've had experience with a total of 5 different Taurus brand firearms between my family and myself, and they've all been 100% reliable.

Personally, I have a suspicion that many of the issues folks find with Taurus brand firearms are something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with folks hearing that their gun is unreliable, undesirable junk, so they don't take as good care of them, clean them less often, and when they inevitably malfunction or break due to their neglect, no matter how long it might take for that to happen, they automatically give up on the guns, then share their tales of failure and how they'd never buy one again on the internet. Sure, they could have sent it in for service, taken it to a gunsmith, or attempted to repair it themselves as they surely would have done if it were a Smith & Wesson, but since it has Taurus on it and they've already been convinced by others that it is irreparable junk, it isn't worth the effort.

Let's see, First one was a .357 revolver, the equivalent of an S&W Model 19. The chambers were bored off center in the cylinder. This caused spitting and excessive wear on the right side of the forcing cone. It was one of the first guns I ever bought, so it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Next one was a Model 85, .38 Special snub nose. After sending it back to Taurus for a broken firing pin THREE times, I got rid of it. Last one was a 945(?). A .45acp with a combination of Sig and Beretta features. Other than biting my hand like crazy, the gun itself was okay. The issue lay with the magazines. The plastic base plate was held onto the mag body by a flange folded up from the bottom of the tube. Pretty standard, except there was hardly any flange on any of the magazines. This resulted in the base plate often disengaging from the loaded magazine. This was just a bit problematic. All of the mags were like that and no one made aftermarkets, so critical failure. Within the last few years I've seen barrels machined crooked, mounted in the framed canted and all manner of construction errors.

I can't see how any of this is induced through owner ignorance or neglect.

Echo40 · Mar 18, 2020

Nope, those sound like perfectly legitimate issues. What year did you buy them out of curiosity?

Also, I don't suppose you ever bothered to take pictures of any of them, did you? As I've never seen the likes of such things, save for extreme cases such as Khyber Pass.

Old_Cop · Mar 18, 2020

I have seen a canted barrel on a Taurus 44 mag, but I like my TX22.

Taurus 66 stainless snubby

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